OC Serial Killer Claims Lives of Four Local Homeless Men

OC’s History of Homelessness

By: Tim Houchen June 19, 2019 —

There were two major news stories related to homelessness in Orange County that shocked the world and captivated the international news media spotlight over the course of six months beginning in July of 2011 through February 2012.

The first story was so big and had so much impact on the way homelessness is perceived today, that stories continue to make the news on occasions. That would be the beating and murder of Kelly Thomas at the hands of Fullerton Police in July of 2011. It was an event that is firmly impressed into the memories of people living in Orange County at the time, and it’s likely to remain the most memorable event in the history of homelessness in Orange County ever.

But, there was another homeless story that began to unfold a few months later during the Christmas holiday that same year in 2011 and continued to progress with heightened fear into the early months of 2012 right here in Orange County. Sadly, few remember when four homeless men were murdered over a few weeks time by a serial killer who stalked them like prey. This is their story.

On December 22, 2011 at 8:30 am, Placentia Police officers responded to reports of a body in a shopping center in the 100 block of North Bradford Ave. Police arrived at the scene to find a homeless man stabbed to death. Detectives had no suspect or motive, but indicated that the death would be investigated as a homicide. The name of the victim was withheld pending notification of relatives.

James McGillivray.

The following day on December 23, 2011, police identified the homeless man as 53 year old James McGillivray. Detectives said that the victim had been “brutally” attacked and stabbed to death at about 8:15 pm the night before his body was found. The stabbing took place near where McGillivray was known to sleep in a strip mall adjacent to several businesses that had been closed or abandoned for a year or more.

Police described a suspect dressed in all black from a surveillance video that showed the suspect lying in wait for McGillivry and then stabbing him multiple times. They described McGillivray as a mild-mannered man who kept to himself and was not known to be involved in confrontations.

Homeless victim #2, Lloyd “Jimmy” Middaugh, found dead at under an overpass of the 91 freeway in Anaheim.

Homeless victim #4, John Berry, found dead on LaPalma Avenue in Anaheim.

Witnesses of the attack followed the suspect who ran from the scene towards a nearby mobile home park. A security guard at the mobile home park caught a man climbing a fence and pulled the suspect down. Within minutes police surrounded a Yorba Linda man identified as Itzcoatl Ocampo, 23, as the man who fled the scene where the homeless man was stabbed behind the fast-food restaurant.

Police placed Ocampo under arrest for the killing which took place just three miles from the location of the third murder at the Yorba Linda Library. Officials did not identify the name of the victim until several days later.

Ocampo was described as a former Marine Veteran of the Iraq war that had been unemployed since leaving the military in 2010. Relatives reported that Ocampo was a heavy drinker and had changed since returning from Iraq in 2010.

In late November 2013, Itzcoatl Ocampo was found shaking and vomiting in his cell at Orange County Jail where he was awaiting trial for six murders including four homeless men in 2011 and 2012. Ocampo was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. It has been suspected that Ocampo had intentionally ingested Ajax, a powdered cleaner that may have been available to inmates at the jail.

After Itzcoatl Ocampo was arrested by Anaheim P.D. in January 2012, he gave a video confession to detectives. Revealed in this video are his reasons for murdering the four homeless men.

These historic events were established chronologically using the “In the News” homeless advocates tool at the Hope 4 Restoration website —